Gotta go

Excited to get on the plane

I was nervous about flying with the girls to Minnesota. It's a 2 1/2 hour flight. All the what if's went through my mind. Thankfully both Curly and The Bear were perfect on the flight up. All my worries were gone. I wasn't nervous about the flight home at all. I figured now they knew the drill so it would be smooth sailing. Famous last words. We boarded on time to go home, got settled in our seats, pulled away from the gate and were taxiing to the runway. Smooth going. Then the plane stopped. We were stuck on the plane waiting for clearance to take off for about about 30 to 45 minutes. Annoying for sure, but not too bad. Finally we took off for home.

I could tell Curly was tired when we finally took off. She had woken up way too early that morning. She was bored to pieces on the plane. No activity was making her happy. I kept telling her to try to go to sleep and we'd be landing before she knew it, but she refused. She was miserable and intent on making me miserable as well. As we were landing in Atlanta, Curly looks at me and says " Momma, I gotta go potty real bad, I can't hold it". Ummmm... okay the landing gear is coming down, we'll be on the ground in a minute, then another 5 minutes or so to get to the gate, another 5 to 10 minutes before we get off the plane. Not a good situation. I calmly tell her that she is going to have to hold it for a bit longer because we cannot get out of our seats while landing. Curly completely flips out. She starts screaming and crying and yelling " I gotta go real bad! I gotta got NOW". I'm pretty helpless at this point. Curly has never screamed this loud before in her life. The entire plane could hear her. We land, I decided to go ahead and unbuckle and try to take her while we are taxiing. The stewardess quickly gets on the intercom and reprimands me for getting up and firmly tells me to sit back down and buckle up. Since Curly is still screaming about having to go potty, the stewardess does add at the end of her scolding "I am so sorry she has to go". Thanks a lot. So we get to the gate, and most people stay seated so I can run with Curly to the bathroom. Our seats were much closer to the front of the plane. People in the 4 or 5 rows in front of us stayed seated so we could run to the restoom. But we eventually got stuck behind people who stood up to get their bags. Keep in mind, Curly is still SCREAMING and crying, so all these people know why we need to get around them. I was stuck for a few minutes next to a man who was still seated. He firmly told me that I needed to go take Curly to the back of the plane to go to the restroom. I think he was afraid she would go right there next to him. I firmly pointed out to him that I was about 10 rows from the front restroom and about 50 rows from the back so I would under NO circumstances turn around. Finally we are able to push through and make it to the restroom. It was a nightmare experience. I felt awful for Curly. As we waited for my parents and The Bear at the gate, everyone who exited the plane stopped to ask us "Did she make it?".

I was tired. Curly was tired. The Bear was happy because she got some wings from the pilot for her and Curly. We were all excited to see Daddy at the top of that escalator and go home =0).